The following post is inspired by the request at problogger.net for articles surounding the theme, “Blogging Goals.” In last weeks episode, I used Frank Lloyd Wright’s quotes as inspiration on the topic ‘effective blogging.’ This week, I’ll use another one of his quotes to start into the topic ‘blogging goals’ where I will argue that an important goal for any blogger is to avoid automation which ensures originality and prevents the loss of precious ‘blogging mojo’.

Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most prominent architects of the first half of the 20th century influencing the whole course of American architecture and building. FLW was the man. When FLW talked, people listened. FLW never had the chance to even comprehend things like the Internet, let alone blogging (he died in 1959), but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have some good ideas that can be brought to the subject at hand. He had plenty. This is perhaps one of my favourite quotes from him that I think fits well with the theme blogging goals:

Mechanization best serves mediocrity

Ok, maybe it’s not obvious so let me rephrase:

The use of machines to replace manual labour makes a blog ordinary to inferior at best

I take manual labour to mean, in the blogging sense, actually sitting down and hammering keys to create strings of words that form sentances creating coherent thoughts. I take manual labour, in the blogging sense, to mean actually creating something new — an opinion, idea, thought, advice, whatever. Just something original. Make no mistake, automation is great for producing, its just not good at producing originality. The two cannot coexist for long. Its tough marketing to make your product appear original and at the same time be mass produced (Ikea and Coke seam to be good at it).

My blogging goal for the Problogger groupthink was going to be simple: write one good thing a week. Just one. Write one thing of value and utility per week (its very hard to do). Thats pretty good advice, but I think this is a far tougher goal for blogging: avoid automating. When I see an automated blog, I leave and I don’t come back.

Hallmarks of an automated blog:

• any kind of daily links posting (the only exceptions are waxy and kottke whom also post good quailty full length stuff)
• 3 massive adsense blocks (you can have three, but that doesn’t make it a good idea)
• 10 or more chicklets [furl this, add to myyahoo, etc]
• Blog titles that follow the pattern ‘e.Something’ or eLearning
• Blog titles that contain the word(s) pundit, musings, or thoughts
• A music video on your page of some sort
• The word ‘webring’
• The recycling of RSS content, or articles from another site

Of them all, the first and last are the most egregious and heinously automated. Both indicate to even the most uneducated surfer that they have arrived at a garbage site solely designed to make money. The others in the list generally indicate some level of laziness. And, doesn’t ‘elearning pundit’ sound shady? Would you trust information from someone billing themselves as an eLearning Pundit?

Consider Figure 1 below. Its eye catching because its not mechanized nor automated — its original.

It clearly indicates what Frank Lloyd Wright meant when he said that, ‘Mechanization best serves Mediocrity.” The figure is beautiful, there can be no doubt — there is no other like it in the world. Infact, I designed it to be unique in order to make you look. Taking FLWs words and spinning them a couple decades ahead, and multiplying by the theme of blogging goals I arrive at this general rule that is not well illustrated (in a literal sense) in the above figure:

The more you automate, the inferior you become*

And of course, as you loose originality and become inferior you also loose whatever it is that you blog for anyway (money, power, respect?) — lets call it your mojo. Don’t loose your blogging mojo by automating. Your ‘blogging goal’ should be originality which is exhibited not only in your content (what you write) but in your site’s style and name (how you look).

Subscribe to MaxPower: no medical exam and no salesperson will visit

*There of course exists a tipping point whereupon if everyone is original than no one is unique meaning that only the automated blogs will not be mediocre. But that hurts my brain to think about.